Organizers of a charter school planned for Ka‘u have scaled back enrollment projections, but they say the project is on track for a July opening. ADVERTISING Organizers of a charter school planned for Ka‘u have scaled back enrollment projections, but
Organizers of a charter school planned for Ka‘u have scaled back enrollment projections, but they say the project is on track for a July opening.
Ka‘u Learning Academy, the state’s only charter school approved this year, plans to use the Discovery Harbour golf course clubhouse as a temporary facility. Organizers have been appearing before the state Public Charter School Commission, the Windward Planning Commission and the Hawaii County Liquor Commission as they wrap up fundraising efforts and attend to the myriad of details associated with turning a golf clubhouse into a school.
The Charter Commission on June 18 will vote on a request by Ka‘u Learning Academy Executive Director Kathryn Tydlacka-McCown to reduce the first-year enrollment from 111 students to 85. Tydlacka-McCown said Tuesday the school is likely to meet the 111 enrollment figure, but it needed some breathing room as it nears its deadline.
“It looks like we’re going to surpass that,” she said. “We just wanted to make sure.”
Tom Hutton, executive director for the Charter School Commission, also is optimistic that the school can meet its opening goals.
“It’s very common that parents wait until the end of the school year before they decide about the next school year,” Hutton said.
Hutton said lowering the enrollment will allow the school to cross one more thing off its checklist.
Still on the list for Tydlacka-McCown are plumbing and electrical upgrades to meet permitting requirements, fire alarm testing and other details to comply with requirements of the Planning Commission. The school won a special permit for 3.69 acres in the state land use agricultural district earlier this year.
“So many pieces had to come together to get to this point,” Tydlacka-McCown said.
Meanwhile, the school is operating under a special wine and beer liquor license at the Gilligan’s Cafe in the clubhouse, as a way to raise money for school operations. The Hawaii Police Department requested, and the Planning Commission required, that the current bar operations at the clubhouse be terminated and no alcohol be stored in the facility once school starts.
Tydlacka said plans are to cease selling alcohol at the facility after July 4.
The Big Island school was the only one of six schools applying statewide that won approval from the state Charter School Commission last year, under stricter guidelines put into place by the state Legislature. Charter schools can operate with more freedom than conventional public schools, but they do not get funding for facilities. Organizational expenses must also be paid by the charter school applicant. The school has its $10,000 required as one of the pre-opening assurances.
The tuition-free academy, for grades three to six, will follow the public school calendar, with a first day of class July 29. Eventually, the academy will expand to a kindergarten to eighth-grade school.
Tydlacka said the school will run a bus with stops in Pahala, Naalehu and Ocean View.
She told the Planning Commission the academy plans to use the clubhouse for only three years. After that, the school plans to move to Lehua Court plaza in Ocean View.
School officials praised South Point Investment Group for donating the use of the clubhouse property for the school, and other large donors, such as Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc., for donating equipment. The Ed Olson Trust donated two vans and Chamberlin Foundation has provided the majority of the funding.
School officials describe on their website, kaulearning.com, how they will meet lofty goals to improve learning and test results. Their plan includes using a system Tydlacka developed that analyzes student data and which she used to predict — with nearly 80 percent accuracy — how successful students would be on standardized state exams.
Students will be assessed for how they are reaching certain academic benchmarks monthly and quarterly and teachers will be given sufficient time to analyze data from those benchmarks, according to the school plan, available online. The school’s curriculum will align with the Common Core standards.
